Singer Steve Goodman’s spirit rejoices (I’m sure), but will the courts agree?

I’m sure many people are hearing the spirit of folk singer Steve Goodman, what with the Illinois Commerce Commission making a (long overdue, in their opinion) ruling to take down the Lincoln Towing Company.

The long-time North Side-based business has developed quite a reputation throughout the years as an entity that is overzealous in the way it goes about towing automobiles that it contends are illegally parked.

THEN PUTS AUTO owners through quite an ordeal in order for them to reclaim their vehicles.

This reputation has been around for so long that back in the 1970s, the singer Goodman came up with his “Lincoln Park Pirates” song.

As Goodman put it in verse, “We plunder the streets of your town/be it Edsel or Chevy there’s no car too heavy/And no one can make us shut down.”

Personally, I feel fortunate to never have had to deal with Lincoln Towing (in large part because I go out of my way to do all my in-city traveling via the “el” or bus, along with the occasional taxicab). Although I have known people who had to endure the Lincoln Towing menace, going back several decades.

WHICH IS WHY the ICC actions of last year were long overdue.

The state agency that regulates interstate commerce (including utility companies but also services such as Lincoln Towing) has been investigating the towing service’s activities.

They contended there have been 831 violations of state towing laws between July 2015 and March 2016. I’m sure there are people who say that’s a miniscule accounting of all the improprieties they’d attribute to Lincoln Towing.

That resulted in the ICC ruling on Wednesday that the state license permitting Lincoln Towing to operate is revoked. The company has been silenced. Decades of the company’s victims may feel a sense of rejoice.

FOR ALL I know, Goodman’s song may well be playing in their mental jukeboxes over and over and over again to the point where they will become tired of the tune. Maybe they'll then switch over to his "Daley's Gone" tune that was a tribute (of sorts) to the old man, Richard J.

The sad part of this is that this issue is not resolved. Because the Chicago Tribune reported how an administrative law judge previously ruled that there were “inconsistencies” in those hundreds of alleged violations and that claims of illegal activity were actually, “without merit and not supported by the record.”

But that administrative judge’s legal opinion amounts to a recommendation for the ICC, one that the commission apparently chose to ignore.

Could it be that Lincoln Towing has developed such a negative reputation throughout the years that the ICC couldn’t bring itself to rule in their favor. Could Goodman’s tune have been playing in the mindsets of the commission members when they made their own decision Wednesday morning?

IT WILL BE interesting to see how this situation plays out, because Lincoln Towing now has the right to sue the state of Illinois to challenge the ICC ruling. Considering that it is the only way the company will be able to continue operating, a lawsuit is inevitable.

Will a Cook County judge ultimately restore Lincoln Towing’s “good name?” Which, quite frankly, isn’t all that good, because Goodman (who has been dead for more than three decades) has proven the power of the pen being mightier than the sword with regard to the “Pirates.” That song will influence more people than any court ruling that could be forthcoming in future years.

It may be the sad part about Goodman’s life and career that he died at age 36. He did songs about the Chicago Cubs (of whom he was a fan), but didn’t live long enough to see them win a championship.

And he didn’t come close to living long enough to seen Lincoln Towing get its (temporary, at least) comeuppance.

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It’s that World Series time of year – which ballclub do we follow in Chi?

I’m amused by the knowledge that Jake Peavy is scheduled to start the second game of the World Series on Wednesday, pitching for the San Francisco Giants as they try to win their third World Series title in the past five years.

For let’s not forget that Peavy also was active this time of year one year ago – he was with that Boston Red Sox ballclub that managed to slip an American League championship in between two last place seasons. He got to pitch in the 2013 World Series.

TWO YEARS IN a row, Peavy is a starting pitcher for ball clubs that have a shot at the top title in professional baseball.

Of course, during the parts of five seasons that Peavy was a starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, he was supposed to be the big game pitcher who would lead the Sox to a World Series appearance.

Only it never happened. The White Sox flirted with playoff baseball during his time in Chicago. But it never was fulfilled for the South Side ballclub and its fans.

So what should we think when Peavy pitches on Wednesday. Are we going to secretly be rooting for him? Or wondering why the big bum couldn’t get his act together for Chicago (a 36-win, 29-loss, 4.00 earned run average record was far from what the White Sox expected).

NOW I’M NOT necessarily wishing ill will on Peavy. I’m just pointing out he’s one of the few ballplayers who will be taking the field beginning Tuesday in this year’s World Series matchup between American League champion Kansas City Royals and the National League champ San Francisco Giants that has a Chicago connection.

One of the few for whom we can scream at our television sets “Why couldn’t you do that here!!?!?” while watching him play the summer game in the days leading up to Halloween.

He’s not the only one.

There’s also Jason Frasor, a relief pitcher who’s on the roster of the Kansas City Royals.

SOME MAY REMEMBER he pitched part of a season (the second half of 2011) with the White Sox. It wasn’t all that substantial.

His connection is more home-bound. He was born in Chicago, raised in suburban Oak Forest and played college baseball at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale – before going into the professional ranks that has seen him pitch in Toronto and Arlington, Texas, along with the Royals and the White Sox.

It will be a first World Series appearance for Frasor – in fact, this is the first time he’s ever played for a ballclub that managed to get into the playoffs.

Thank goodness for all those wild cards that now permit lesser ball clubs to have a chance at a league championship and World Series appearance. Otherwise, the Royals would all be sitting at home, on account of the fact that the Detroit Tigers were one game better than they were during the regular season.

BUT WE DO have these expanded playoffs in baseball, and some people like the idea of these almost-good enough teams getting a second chance. Which the Royals have take advantage of – having not lost a single ballgame during the playoffs. While also giving us the all-Wild Card World Series for 2014.

Beginning with that wild card qualifier game against the Oakland Athletics – who had the guy who many thought was going to be the Chicago connection to this year’s World Series.

After all, the White Sox’ Adam Dunn was traded to Oakland in early September, giving them a big bat (home runs, plus many strikeouts) to bolster the team in October.

Yet his “Super Whiff” characteristics kept Dunn from even playing in Oakland’s one playoff game – in which Kansas City overcame the rest of the team, got hot at the right time and has given us countless moments on television of watching one-time Royals third baseman George Brett cheer on the boys in baby blue as they try to win their first World Series title since that ball club Kansas City had in 1985.

MUCH HAS BEEN made of the fact that Kansas City hasn’t won anything since the middle of the Reagan Administration. Although those of us who will be watching the World Series on television this week and next will snicker at the idea of 1985 being all that distant.

Particularly for North Side baseball partisans – where despite playoff appearances in recent years, there hasn’t been a World Series victory since the days when the U.S. flag only had 46 stars.

Nor even an appearance since (with apologies to Steve Goodman) “the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.”

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